Re: Winter Warning: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Not to scare folks, but if I could add......
CO is something not to be messed with. It is odourless and tasteless. Prior to retirement, I work a few decades for a local natural gas utility. Responding to gas emergencies, I have been involved with and witnessed far too many incidents where people have suffered from CO poisoning due to lack of maintenance, faulty appliances, venting, etc.
One needs to be careful with CO. This **** can kill you.
My experience has been that CO is lighter than air. We always detected slightly higher concentrations at the ceiling. Our business rule was, we do not enter a home if the concentrations at the front door were above 100 PPM. I had to give a few of the guys **** for trying to be the ****** hero and entering a building with higher concentrations. Our business practice was to turn off the gas supply, encourage the people to leave the building and hire a qualified gas contractor to make repairs. Believe it or not, some people would just turn on the their gas without repairs. If we had a subsequent call for CO, the gas meter was then removed.
As an example, a home with a modern high efficiency boiler exhausting out the side of a home. The appliance was over sized for the application and it was short cycling. The appliance was very "dirty" until it was at full operation temps - high CO levels being dumped out the exhaust. The neighbor immediately adjacent always had their second story bathroom window open because they didn't have a bathroom exhaust fan. With the house having a slightly negative air pressure, it sucked the CO right in the bathroom window. Same floor as the bedrooms. CO detector was on the first floor. Luckily, this family only ended up spending the night at the local hospital because the entire family of 4 had CO poisoning. Neighbor didn't care about the exhaust and the only practical solution for the homeowner was to have their bathroom window closed.
Note - children are more susceptible to CO poisoning.
The above example was a prefect storm, but shows you how easily CO poisoning can happen.
Please be careful with CO.
Carbon Monoxide (CO) Exposure Limits
PPM, Time, Comments
35 – 50, 8 hours, The maximum allowable concentration for continuous exposure in any 8 hour period, according to OSHA.
200, 2 to 3 hrs., Headache (mild)
400, 1 to 2 hrs., Headache (mild)
800, 10 to 15 min., Dizziness, nausea
1600, 20 min., Headache, dizziness, death within 1 hour
3200, 5 – 10 min., Headache, dizziness, death within 1 hour
6400, 1 – 2 min., Headache, dizziness, death within 1 hour
6000 – 8000, 5 min., Incapacitation
12,800, 2 – 3 breaths, Unconsciousness
12,800, 1 – 3 min., Death